Tailoring the Chemical Potential of Crystal Growth Units to Tune the Bulk Structure of Nanocrystals

Jiawei Zhang; Guifen Du; Huiqi Li; Qiaoli Chen; Qin Kuang; Zhiyuan Jiang; Zhaoxiong Xie

doi:10.1002/smtd.202000447

Tailoring the Chemical Potential of Crystal Growth Units to Tune the Bulk Structure of Nanocrystals

Small Methods. 2021 Mar;5(3):e2000447. doi: 10.1002/smtd.202000447. Epub 2020 Sep 1.

Authors

Jiawei Zhang¹, Guifen Du¹, Huiqi Li¹, Qiaoli Chen¹, Qin Kuang¹, Zhiyuan Jiang¹, Zhaoxiong Xie^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China.
² Pen-Tung Sah Institute of Micro-Nano Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China.

PMID: 34927828
DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202000447

Abstract

The intrinsic factors affecting the bulk structures of nanocrystallites are not well explored during crystallization. In this study, it is demonstrated that the chemical potential of growth units plays decisive role in governing the final structure of nanocrystals. It is found that the types of reaction vessels are able to vary the chemical potential of growth units, and make the Pt and Pd nanocrystals (NCs) unexpectedly evolve from the cyclic penta-twinned to the single-crystal nanostructures. In turn, it is concluded that the crystal growth units with lower chemical potential favor the formation of crystal nuclei with lower chemical potential during the nucleation. This new approach in tuning the bulk structures of NCs enriches the understanding of the crystallization process under supersaturated (nonequilibrium) condition, and would provide a general guidance for controlling nanocrystals with various thermodynamic forms.

Keywords: chemical potential; crystal growth; noble metal; supersaturation; twin.

Abstract

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